The demographic blood loss will continue. Two years after the start of the massive Russian-led invasion, Ukraine continues to experience population decline with no hope of an immediate turnaround. The country currently has between 33 and 35 million inhabitants, but an exact accounting cannot be determined due to the occupation of 20% of the territory by Russian troops.
The low estimate of 33.7 million comes from the International Monetary Fund, while official Ukrainian statistics give this figure of 35 million as of January 1, 2024. An exact number “Within 200,000 people,” said Oleksandr Gladun, deputy director of the Ptoukha Institute of Demographics and Social Sciences, which includes Ukrainians living within the internationally recognized 1991 borders, including Crimea, the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia regions and Kherson is still occupied by the Russian army. But the number is only decreasing has 31.1 million if we limit ourselves to the territory that remains under the control of the Ukrainian government.
Life is fleeing Ukraine in many ways: soldiers killed or missing at the front, civilian victims of bombings, captured soldiers, forced population movements in areas occupied by the Russian army, children separated from their parents and sent to Russia, not to mention that 6 million Ukrainian civilians, mostly women and children, have left their country. And the longer the conflict lasts, the greater the likelihood that displaced people will settle in the host country.
On the eve of February 24, 2022, the country's population was 41 million, although this figure is disputed. The last census took place in March 2001 and the Ukrainian state has postponed the exercise several times since then, with politically explosive results.
Gravediggers dig tirelessly
One of the big unknowns to this day is the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the fighting. Forced to wage an existential struggle against a numerically superior aggressor who does not shy away from war crimes, the Ukrainian state has chosen to keep quiet about military losses in order to avoid the demoralizing effect on the population, especially on older men reduce fighting. All people between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.
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But inevitably the accumulation of deaths becomes more and more visible. Every day brings with it announcements of mourning on social networks. In all cemeteries, gravediggers tirelessly dig up squares of fresh graves decorated with the two-tone blue and yellow flag as a tribute to the soldiers who fell with weapons in hand.
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